Thai Police Taking Orders from Chinese Embassy?
Chinese Embassy in Bangkok pressures local police into stifling Falun Gong protests
On December 14, Thai police told the protesting Falun Gong practitioners that if they returned to the Embassy to protest the following day, they would be arrested.
In a separate incident on December 14, in the Thai beach town of Pattaya, Thai police detained three Falun Gong practitioners who were distributing leaflets exposing the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Among those detained was Mr. Zhang Mengye, a former classmate of CCP leader Hu Jintao, who is currently seeking asylum in Thailand after being tortured in Chinese detention.
The demonstrators say they have been regularly distributing flyers at that location for the past six months. Now, however, there appear to be new orders.
“The Chinese Communist government has been bullying nations around the world to carry out its persecutory policies,” says Falun Dafa Information Center (FDI) spokesperson Levi Browde. “And they especially target anyone who reveals the details of how they torture and murder to maintain power, something we have been exposing peacefully for the past six years.”
“We respectfully urge the Thai government to reconsider its position, maintain its sovereignty, and not follow the Communist Party’s illegal demands that violate human rights.”
These incidents are the most recent of a series of attempts by the CCP to silence Falun Gong around the world. Last week, when CCP Premier Wen Jiabao visited the Czech Republic, a group of Chinese tried to bribe the Falun Gong practitioners who were protesting opposite the Prague Chinese Embassy. When the practitioners refused the $1,500, and with Wen’s car fast approaching, the group surrounded the practitioners and tore down their banner.
Similar incidents have happened in several other countries including Burma, France, Mexico, Germany, and Russia (news).
In a separate incident, reports from Argentina on December 14 indicated that a group of Chinese thugs believed to have ties with the Chinese Embassy assaulted Falun Gong practitioners who were publicly protesting in Argentina, where senior Chinese official Luo Gan is visiting. Luo was sued for genocide by Falun Gong plaintiffs the previous day.
Some of these incidents, which have been documented with local police, have involved beating and strangling.
“What scares the CCP most is exposure of their suppression and brutalization of the Chinese people,” Browde says. “The persecution of peaceful people who meditate is probably the clearest illustration of the Communist Party’s ruthlessness, and so they go to extreme measures to prevent word from getting out.”
To date, the deaths of 2,791 individuals who practice Falun Gong as a result of the CCP’s six-year persecution of the practice have been confirmed. The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group (link) has details of over 44,000 cases of torture. China’s widespread use of torture was confirmed earlier this month by U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak. Nowak acknowledged being repeatedly blocked from trying to investigate the torture of Falun Gong adherents.
“We’re at a critical time right now,” explains Browde. “Millions of Chinese are making public statements to renounce the Party, protests are raging in the countryside, prominent lawyers are openly challenging the judicial system, epidemic and toxic pollution cover-ups are being exposed, all this is happening at the same time. Put it together, and you can see why the government is nervous.”
“It also becomes clear why they have so much to hide and feel they need to silence even a small protest in Bangkok.”
In addition to the ongoing protests outside Chinese embassies and consulates worldwide, protests outside Thai embassies are under way in many of the world’s major cities to urge the Thai government not to bow to Chinese government pressure.
